Re: [MV] the problem with jeep data

Gordon.W.I. McMillan (gwim2@student.open.ac.uk)
Mon, 27 Sep 1999 09:11:30 +0100

Well Jim, I for one want a copy of the book when you get it done, but you
better send it surface mail 'cause it'll be a big one 8-)

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Jim is showing us that you can dig up most of this stuff if you try, and a
lot of the information is out there. My basic gripe is that no-one is
doing for Dodges what Jim is doing for jeeps, now if the UK National
Lottery would just come through with a big win.......

Dodges are not immune from mis-information either, if you ask a
knowledgeable Dodge chap how many 1940 VC 6 Carryalls were made he will
either quote 24 from memory (W-205696 to W-205719) or look it up in one of
the reference books based on the Dodge Master Parts List. This is Dodges
own figure so it must be correct ? - until you look at the most common
(only?) VC 6 photograph in the reference books and see it sitting there
with 'USA W-22297' painted on the back of it, actually a number that
should have been on an open cab pickup VC 5. Since all the VC 6 photos
I've seen have been of this truck it is probably the prototype getting the
formal photos outside the Mound Road plant after being built on a line
that was otherwise full of VC 5's. Make that at least 25 VC 6's.

If you aren't sleeping yet it is worth remembering that some of our
favourite toys would have been assembled and delivered sequentially (with
chassis, body, and USA numbers assigned just as they come) and some of
them would be built using batched stocks that were made, shipped, stored,
and used on the 'last in - first out' sort of sequence. My two WC 36
Carryalls had body and chassis numbers in sequence and roughly the same
count apart, but the lower numbered unit had a date of delivery a month
AFTER the higher one (January '42 as opposed to December '41) Since the
d/o/d and chassis number were machine stamped on the glovebox plate I
would think that reduces the chance of the lower numbered unit failing
acceptance testing and being fixed and accepted a month later. Also the
higher chassis/ body numered unit had a USA number (W-2029275) only 19 up
from the first number assigned, and the body / chassis numbering was 83/84
up from the lower numbered unit.

Ooops, getting too confusing. Keep up the good work Jim, fancy trying to
sort out Dodge production when you have cracked the jeep figures? In the
meantime I'd better defend Graham Scott by pointing out that the library
of Virginia Signal Corps site does indeed have photos of jeeps stacked
with the windscreen off the lower one, mostly on flatcars. The same site
has images of 4 x 4 and 6 x 6 Dodges doing the same trick (with the help
of some wood) and a particularly silly shots of three 6 x 6 GMCs in what I
can only call 'hump' mode.

Another example of how useful this list is.

Gordon, Falkirk, Scotland

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